Estonian Jumal ‘God’
Estonian Jumal ‘God’

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on semantics and the use of the word jumal ‘god’ in Estonian. At first, we give an overview of the etymology of jumal ‘god’ and its meanings in Standard Estonian and Estonian dialects. Then we examine jumal ‘god’ as a linguistic unit associated with different constructions and collocational patterns, bleaching of the meaning, and usage in fulfilling different communication goals. In our study we show how jumal ‘god’ can refer literally to the higher power of Christianity or some other religion but it is also used in the weakened, bleached sense, meaning ‘very, completely’ or ‘total, absolute’, and in combination with certain verbs, meaning ‘random’, ‘indefinite’.

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